Product ReviewsApple MacBook A1181 13.3" Laptop - MB061LL/A (May, 2007)

Product good not able to use

Decent when made. I was not able to do anything with it. I had the apparently same year and model needing repairs. It was not the same as this. Prior one was a little different with different features and security. But it is by research that for about 6 months a different variation was made. My best guess is one may have been a government model. Other is basically the same again. I have more work to do. So if you purchase a snow leopard etc they vary. Same model and year. Otherwise working but can't use. If I repair the prior one it is not necessary impossible to repair one for basic items. It is better in part than any new android windows or some Mac. So I would recommend depending on what you need to use it for sometimes air and cloud is a decent idea but it doesn't take the place of internal storage. Actually any cloud is a mess for people with specific things needed. Accessibility you need internal storage. Cloud does not help. Businesses may be able to use alternate means. Otherwise apple is generally the front runner for accessibility security etc. Medical facilities generally use them as well as other HIPPA org or facilities any.
So no this is a decent one. I believe it may be possible to repair one or the other of the two. Ps if you have a pro air it does have features that could be used with a back up storage. Otherwise I would recommend if buying apple which I prefer, pro with internal storage and air will external is not necessarily the same. May wish to ask depending on what you are using it for. Chromebook windows same thing same item and not the same. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: sntsell365

Glitchy, hard to connect to internet! Forever to load..charger connects after repeated tries...slow. Great body and beautiful.

Trying to connect to really good wifi at McDonalds and Wifi takes forever!! Beautiful appearance by charger I have to put on and off repeAtedly just to charge!! So glitchy.. taking the next week to decide if I'll return.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: refurbished | Sold by: ameri-mac

For an older Mac, this Macbook can still hold it's own in the year 2013.

I bought the Mid-2007 Macbook because I was tired of raising my Dell laptop from the dead. I felt like I was beating a dead horse every time I fixed it. I was able to salvage the larger hard drive and memory from the Dell and use it in my mid-2007 Macbook. The specs on the older Macbook may seem weak to some, but with the hard drive upgraded to 200gb and add 4gb of memory, this Macbook can still run with the big dogs. It supports OSX 10.7.5 Lion officially, but other groups have been able to install Mountain Lion on this model. So far there is no support of any kind for Mavericks. Even with Snow Leopard or Lion installed, I can still get the most recent updates of most of the apps that I use.

This Mac is not meant to be a gaming machine, so don't complain that you can't play COD on the integrated Graphics. This machine however will run ProTools 9 and FinalCut Express with no problems. I can even use iDVD with an external DVD burner now that Apple has support for generic disc burning finally.

My suggestion personally is to get this laptop if you can find it for under $250. Any higher than that, and you should hold out for the late 2008 Macbook, which has better graphics and can support Mavericks.Read full review...

Solid Apple experience great starter mac...

This was not my first macbook a1181. I decided when my daughters wanted computers this would be perfect. These MacBooks are still powerfull enough to be useful, cost is good for a stable ,easy to use mac platform, and parts if needed are very plentiful and reasonable. These macs are also user serviceable to anyone with a few simple tools and some skill. These macs also have external battery when removed allows easy upgrades to both memory and hard drives . Only thing I fault these on is their top case design ,the thin edge in front and sides can chip from wear and tear and along front edge from the repeated closing of the screen to due to magnets used to "latch" screen. This is minor cosmetic damages not affecting function in anyway just distracts from appearance. Over all these are solid,stable machines offering better performance than many windows machines available at same price.... after all just my opinion.Read full review...

Decent little computer with only minor flaws

I like this computer a bit. I bought it and it needed some work and I fixed it up. Learning to put it back together was quite fun.

The computer is relatively fast. The wifi drops a little too frequently, but overall it is better than most computers of its day.

The speed is very good for simultaneously running Office, Photoshop, and Safari.

Overall I think a 4/5 is a decent rating for it, and I'm picky about my computers.

If you need one, I've got one for sale at the moment, and I also fix them if you find any Mac post-G4 that you'd like repaired.Read full review...

MacBook

I love my new This is really where everything is at for these new machines. Apple's finally upgraded to the Core 2010 processors, which bring with them cores galore, along with Turbo Boost tech for automatic overclocking of the chip based on demand. Software utilization of multiple cores has come a long way, but it's still not perfect, so Turbo Boost switches off a couple of the extra cores when they're not needed to make room for overclocking of the remaining cores -- to pretty dramatic effect at times. We're testing out the top-of-the-line 2.66GHz Core i7 machine with NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB HDD, which retails for $2,199.

We aren't what you would call power users in a rendering-Pixar-movies sort of way, but we can still tax a machine just fine. We're usually running a couple browsers at once, frequently batch process piles of photos, edit videos the quick and dirty way in iMovie or QuickTime, and dabble with GarageBand from time to time. Slowdowns and hiccups are the norm on even the best machine with what we've got going on. Unsurprisingly, Core i7 hasn't made this all go away. Instead, it's just made it happen less. It's obvious that the machine can juggle just a bit more at once, launch apps a bit faster, pop open dialogues just a bit quicker, and so forth. Of course, this is all hard to quantify and is rather subjective, but we feel it.

To really bust on the processor more specifically we fired up some Flash video, pitting our new Core i7 Pro against an "old" MacBook Pro with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM. Both machines are actually pretty strong when running a single bit of Flash at a time, but it's when a couple dozen tabs are open all slamming the processor at once that things get difficult. We fired up Hulu in 480p (the new Glee episode) and a 1080p Avatar trailer on YouTube with both machines managing to keep both videos playing smoothly. Once we added a second 1080p YouTube trailer on each machine, however, the Core 2 Duo machine began to choke, while the Core i7 juggled all three videos successfully.

On a more empirical front we ran some HTML and Flash tests using GUIMark. With Firefox 3.6.3 and Flash 10.0.45.2, we managed 21.31 FPS on HTML and 21.04 FPS on Flash on the new machine, while the old MBP only managed 15.99 FPS and 16.1 FPS, respectively.

We also tried out a 720p video export in iMovie. Of course the GPU gets called in for previewing live effects and whatnot, and we found the entire UI very responsive, but video exports are still a CPU affair, and the new machine thrashed the old one with a 5 minute export vs. 9 minutes.

Here are some more standard benchmarks:Read full review...

good laptop

the price point is a good start. upgraded operating system along with microsoft office added. good for everything i want to do with it. well constructed. color, resolution and volume and also very good. very easy to use and a good size. would highly recommend it.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: intechar

Nice purchase but I would not spend more on a Mac.

I bought the Mac to learn more about the Apple products. The unit was as good as new and I was very happy with the overall condition and excellent service.
Beware if you are thinking of a similar purchase...I found out afterwards that the Apple system of updating software deliberatly excludes machines older machines as a way of generating sales.
I have been a Windows user for years and find hte Mac a bit limiting in comparison, but certainly capable of doing everyday tasks.Read full review...

You will never waste your money on buying an Apple Mac.

Being an Apple Tech for madmacsoforegon.com based in Portland OR I can truly say that pound for pound these are the best computers available on a budget. Sure the market fluctuates town to town but here a working Macbook '07-'10 still goes for around $$225-$350. Does not sound like much of a bargain does it but when you factor in the fact that their life expectancy is over triple most PC's it puts things into a little more perspective and when you factor in the fact that virus protection is basically not needed, the performance jumps a little more. The majority of these A1181 machines can run OS 10.7x which Apple and most apps still support while a few others are capable of running the latest OS Apple has which gives its life expectancy around 5-10 years depending on technology advancements and such. Also feel confident with your purchase because in almost every town in America you will find someone like us who specialize in keeping these laptops running affordably. One more note to consider though, we are finding that the '06-'08 CCFL backlit models (that's the ones with the fluorescent tube not the LED backlit ones) are starting to have the bulb go out on them due to just the life of a bulb so try to determine if you can the amount of use it may have had because repair parts and labor is going to be around $150 for new. I hope this helps and have a good day.Read full review...

Average value! Put a few more bucks onto the 2009 version.

This is my first Apple purchase (surprise surprise) and I wanted to give it try with the Macbook. I liked that it has a nice size and look (like the 2009 version) but it did not come included with an updated software which I had to purchase for myself in order to run with the rest of the world - such OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and the GarageBand & Quicktime combo. Its not as fast as the Macbook Pro but you get most of the features you can expect from a 2007 model of the Mac & Apple in general. It does compare a lot better then getting a PC for the price of $250.

Although, I'd recommend spending a few more bucks for a 2009 version of the Macbook.Read full review...

Happy with purchase, a great deal for the cost!

The Macbook even though it is five years old still performs extremely well. This mid 2007 unit did require installing software from its manufacture period to facilitate the booting of the OS. The newer Leopard OS installed very easily and smoothly after that. Memory and HD upgrades were readily recognized and made this unit very usable(4gb and 500gb). All required software and parts needed were readily available on Ebay. The battery is used but still has some life left, so battery life cannot be evaluated at this time. The unit runs very smoothly and virtually glitch free so far. Overall i'm very impressed as unit has remained very fast even after all the updates from Apple.Read full review...